Madonna Achieves 10th No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘CONFESSIONS II’

Madonna‘s “Confessions II,” her first new album in seven years, found an appreciative audience awaiting her return. The album bowed with 134,000 equivalent album units, more than enough to push her past the still highly successful Olivia Rodrigo record to land on top of the Billboard 200 album chart.

via: Billboard

Madonna earns her 10th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as her new studio album, CONFESSIONS II, debuts atop the list dated July 18. With the arrival, the Queen of Pop gets her first No. 1 album of the 2020s and becomes the first act with a No. 1 album in the 2020s to have also topped the chart in three other decades.

Further, Madonna becomes only the fourth act to have achieved at least 10 No. 1s each on the Billboard 200 albums chart and the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. On the latter, she has 12 leaders.

CONFESSIONS II launches with 134,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending July 9, according to Luminate. That marks the largest week for a dance album this year. It also scores Madonna her best week, by units, since the Billboard 200 transitioned to an equivalent album units-ranked list in December 2014. CONFESSIONS II additionally yields Madonna’s biggest streaming week ever for an album, and her largest pure album sales week in more than a decade.

The new album is the sequel to 2005’s chart-topping Confessions on a Dance Floor, and reunites Madonna with her main collaborator from that project, DJ/writer/producer Stuart Price. CONFESSIONS II was announced on April 15, released on July 3 and marks Madonna’s first new studio album since 2019’s No. 1 Madame X. The new set was preceded by its Hot 100 hit “Bring Your Love,” with Sabrina Carpenter.

Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Ken Carson captures his second top 10-charted title as xperiment debuts at No. 7, Sienna Spiro makes her chart debut with the No. 9 bow of her first full-length studio album, Visitor, and the late Toby Keith returns to the top 10 following the July 4 holiday.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new July 18, 2026-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 14. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Of CONFESSIONS II’s 134,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week, album sales comprise 114,000 (Madonna’s best sales week since 2015 — it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 19,000 (equaling 20.1 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks, Madonna’s largest streaming week ever for an album; it debuts at No. 32 on Top Streaming Albums) and TEA units comprise 1,000.

CONFESSIONS II was initially widely released as both a 12-track and 16-track album. The project’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across 15 vinyl variants, four CD editions, one cassette and six digital download editions. Of the album’s opening-week sales, vinyl purchases comprised 59,000 — Madonna’s biggest week on vinyl in the modern era (since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991).

Madonna’s 10th No. 1 on the Billboard 200

CONFESSIONS II marks Madonna’s 10th No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and first of the 2020s. She landed three No. 1s in the 1980s, four in the 2000s and two in the ‘10s. (She logged seven top 10s in the ‘90s, including five that peaked at No. 2.)

CONFESSIONS II also marks Madonna’s 24th top 10-charted album. The only acts with more top 10s are The Rolling Stones (38), Barbra Streisand (34), The Beatles, Frank Sinatra (both with 32) and Elvis Presley (27).

Here’s a rundown of Madonna’s 10 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200:

Title, Year, Weeks at No. 1

CONFESSIONS II, 2026, one (to date)

Madame X, 2019, one

MDNA, 2012, one

Hard Candy, 2008, one

Confessions on a Dance Floor, 2005, one

American Life, 2003, one

Music, 2000, one

Like a Prayer, 1989, six

True Blue, 1986, five

Like a Virgin, 1985, three

Here’s a recap of the acts with at least 10 No. 1s on the Billboard 200:

The Beatles, 19

Drake, 15

Taylor Swift, 15

JAY-Z, 14

Eminem, 11

Future, 11

Bruce Springsteen, 11

Barbra Streisand, 11

Ye (formerly Kanye West), 11

Madonna, 10

Elvis Presley, 10

The Four Acts With at Least 10 No. 1s Each on the Billboard 200 & Hot 100

With a 10th No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Madonna joins an elite group of acts that have achieved at least 10 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and 10 No. 1s on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.

Only The Beatles, Drake and Taylor Swift have also achieved the distinction. The Beatles have 19 No. 1s on the Billboard 200 and 20 No. 1s on the Hot 100 (the record for both charts, among all acts). Drake has 15 No. 1s on the Billboard 200 and 14 No. 1s on the Hot 100. Swift has 15 No. 1s each on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100.

The King & Queen of Pop, Together in the Top 10

With Michael Jackson’s former No. 1 Thriller falling one spot to No. 8 on the latest Billboard 200 (42,000 equivalent album units, down 12%), the King of Pop is joined by the Queen of Pop, Madonna, in the top 10. Jackson and Madonna have shared space in the top 10 only once previously, on the Dec. 1, 2001-dated chart. That week, Jackson’s chart-topping Invincible fell 3-4 in its third week on the list, while Madonna’s compilation GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2 debuted at No. 7.

The two icons almost met up once in the 1980s in the top 10, but missed one another by a single week. On the Sept. 19, 1987-dated chart, the Madonna-led Who’s That Girl film soundtrack spent its third and final week in the top 10, at No. 7. The following week (Sept. 26), Who’s That Girl fell to No. 11, while Jackson’s Bad debuted at No. 1. Then, on the Oct. 3-dated chart, Who’s That Girl remained at No. 11, while Bad held at No. 1.